The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures

by Nicholas Wade

Overview

Noted science writer Nicholas Wade offers for the first time a convincing case based on a broad range of scientific evidence for the evolutionary basis of religion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101155677
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/12/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	524 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Nicholas Wade received a BA in natural sciences from King’s College, Cambridge. He was the deputy editor of Nature magazine in London and then became that journal’s Washington correspondent. He joined Science magazine in Washington as a reporter and later moved to The New York Times, where he has been an editorial writer, concentrating on issues of defense, space, science, medicine, technology, genetics, molecular biology, the environment, and public policy, a science reporter, and a science editor.

Table of Contents

1 The Nature of Religion 1

2 The Moral Instinct 18

3 The Evolution of Religious Behavior 38

4 Music, Dance and Trance 78

5 Ancestral Religion 98

6 The Transformation 124

7 The Tree of Religion 144

8 Morality, Trust and Trade 192

9 The Ecology of Religion 211

10 Religion and Warfare 233

11 Religion and Nation 253

12 The Future of Religion 276

Notes 287

Acknowledgments 299

Index 301

What People are Saying About This

James D. Watson

"The Faith Instinct is a big winner! Its highly intelligent and much-needed narrative about why religions have proved essential to human success kept me engrossed from its beginning to its final pages."

Jack Miles

"It is a rare book that will be read as eagerly by religion's defenders as by its detractors. Building on his rightly admired Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has written just such a book."--(Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography)

Fransd de Waal

"Instead of attacking or defending religion, as so many have done lately, the biggest challenge is to explain how we became the only religious primate. In a spell-binding and wide-ranging account, Nicholas Wade offers a natural history of religion and convincingly explains why the phenomenon is here to stay."--(Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy)

From the Publisher

"A cornerstone of popular religion-and-science studies." —-Booklist

Edward O. Wilson

"As he did earlier for human prehistory in Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has delivered the most balanced and fact-based account available of a subject fundamental to human self-understanding. His scholarship is thorough, and his writing crystalline and exciting."--(Edward O. Wilson, author of Consilience and The Future of Life)

Editorial Reviews

Taking up where he left off in Before the Dawn (2006), an engaging examination of human evolution in light of explorations in the human genome, longtime New York Times science reporter Wade deftly explores the evolutionary basis of religion. He draws on archeology, social science and natural science as he vigorously shows that the instinct for religious behavior is an evolved part of human nature because, like other human social traits that have evolved over many thousands of years, the practice of religion conferred a decided survival advantage to those who practiced it. Natural selection operates according to principles of survival and reproduction of offspring with heritable traits. Many of the social aspects of religious behavior offer advantages—such as internal cohesion—that lead to a society’s members having more surviving children. More importantly, since religions have evolved as their societies have developed, is it possible, Wade asks, for religions to be reworked so that as many people as possible can exercise their innate religious instincts to their own and society’s benefits? Sure to be controversial for its reduction of religion to a product of natural selection, Wade’s study compels us to reconsider the role of evolution in shaping even our most sacred human creations. (Nov. 16)

Publishers Weekly

Science reporter Wade (New York Times) has written an intriguing case for religion and belief in "God" being wired into our human genetics, rather than being something that is learned. He asserts that we are born with a natural tendency to believe in a higher power or a system of religion much like our natural aptitude to learn a language. Religion provided early societies with the structures necessary to organize governments and systems of law. Wade chronicles the development of religious practices through the ages and shows how religion builds community, along with loyalties, and causes differences from place to place that are responsible for many conflicts and wars. Gathering input from numerous experts in their fields, he collects data to support the scientific and behavioral basis for religious thought being part of our physical and mental selves. Similar books that study this topic are Karen Armstrong's The Case for God and Lee Strobel's The Case for the Creator. VERDICT This book will be enjoyed by readers interested in cross-disciplinary studies among science, anthropology, and theology, presented accessibly. Both students and general readers may be interested.—Cynde Suite, Bartow Cty. P.L. Syst., Cartersville, GA\

Library Journal

A provocative account of the development of religion. People have been practicing religion for thousands of years, but they have been practicing morality even longer. In this probing work of science reporting, New York Times correspondent Wade (Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors, 2006, etc.) sheds light on what is sure to be a controversial new field of research in evolutionary psychology, genetics and anthropology. The author asserts that morality and religion are in fact products of evolution. Belief in a higher power and belief in doing unto others as you would have done unto you served important functions in humankind's development-providing social order and cohesion in the absence of law and government. The more order within early hunter-gatherer societies, the more likely the chance of survival and procreation. In simple, straightforward prose, Wade takes the reader on a tour of intellectual history, digressing occasionally to discuss new research into the hard-wired nature of religion-comparing it to language and the power of empathy-and to address such figures as Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins and others who have launched and influenced the so-called new atheism movement. After matter-of-factly presenting their stances, Wade writes that each seems "driven less by any particular evidence than by an implicit premise that religion is bad, and therefore must be nonadaptive." Such is the attitude and even-keeled tone even the most skeptical readers- believers and materialists alike-can expect from this highly intriguing new book. A turning point, and advancement, in the science-religion debate. Agent: Peter Matson/Sterling Lord Literistic

Kirkus Reviews

"Highly intriguing...In this probing work of science reporting, New York Times correspondent Wade sheds light on what is sure to bea controversial new field of research in evolutionary psychology, genetics and anthropology...A turning point, and advancement, in the science-religion debate."
-Kirkus Review

"[In The Faith Instinct], longtime New York Times science reporter Wade deftly explores the evolutionary basis of religion. He draws on archaeology, social science, and natural science as he vigorously shows that the instinct for religious behavior is an evolved part of human nature...Wade's study compels us to reconsider the role of evolution in shaping even our most sacred human conditions."
-Publishers Weekly

"The Faith Instinct is a big winner! Its highly intelligent and much- needed narrative about why religions have proved essential to human success kept me engrossed from its beginning to its final pages."
-James D. Watson, author of The Double Helix

"There is so much...in this compact account, including cultural-evolutionary explanations of the three great monotheisms-enough, in fact, to make it a cornerstone of popular religion-and-science studies."
-Booklist

"It is a rare book that will be read as eagerly by religion's defenders as by its detractors. Building on his rightly admired Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has written just such a book."
-Jack Miles, author of God: A Biography

"As he did earlier for human prehistory in Before the Dawn, Nicholas Wade has delivered the most balanced and fact-based account available of a subject fundamental to human self-understanding. His scholarship is thorough, and his writing crystalline and exciting."
-Edward O. Wilson, author of Consilience and The Future of Life

"Instead of attacking or defending religion, as so many have done lately, the biggest challenge is to explain how we became the only religious primate. In a spell-binding and wide-ranging account, Nicholas Wade offers a natural history of religion and convincingly explains why the phenomenon is here to stay."
-Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy

"Of all the recent books on religion, I believe The Faith Instinct is simultaneously the most complete, the most correct, and the most accessible to the general public. Wade tells an extraordinary story in which morality, community, and religion are three strands of the same rope. Free of jargon and partisanship, The Faith Instinct is full of fascinating and up-to-the- minute scientific discoveries."
-Jonathan Haidt, author of The Happiness Hypothesis

"With his new book, New York Times science reporter Nicholas Wade positions himself as a serious challenger to Steven Pinker for the title of Best Living Popularizer of the Human Sciences."
-The National Review

From the Publisher

Are we predisposed to believe in the supernatural? Do we have a genetic inclination to bond with fellow humans who share these beliefs? Nicholas Wade seems to think so, and he offers some interesting ideas to explain why humans are hardwired to believe in deities—and why that's a genetic requirement for long-term survival as a species. As Wade explains, the concept of god saves us from self-induced anarchy; gods reward us for striving beyond our personal gratification and shame us for succumbing to it. Alan Sklar glides through this stimulating work with an evenhanded tone that will appeal to deists, theists, monotheists, and atheists alike. The best thing about Sklar's read: His sense of wonder and curiosity is contagious. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2010 - AudioFile